Name: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Rating: 4.5 (434 reviews)
Author: Matthew Perry

What’s in it for me? Follow Matthew Perry through the ups and downs of his troubled and turbulent life.

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

The year is 2018. Matthew Perry slowly opens his eyes in the UCLA medical center. Disoriented and scared, he turns to his mother who is sitting next to his hospital bed. “Your colon exploded,” she informs him.

Over the next few days he is given the whole story. The frantic rush from his sober living house to the nearest hospital – delusional with pain. The seven-hour surgery to address the burst colon. The doctors declaring his 2 percent chance of survival. And his family and friends who sat by his side during the two-week coma.

As he slowly recovers – in pain, crying, attached to a colostomy bag – he has no choice but to acknowledge his worst fear: This was his fault. He did this to himself.

How did this happen? How did a funny, handsome, talented actor, best-known for playing Chandler Bing in one of the most popular sitcoms in history, fall so far?

In this Blink to Matthew Perry's memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, you’ll learn the full story. From his troubled childhood to his struggles with addiction and the tragic consequences of his fame, he holds nothing back.

Buckle up.

A troubled childhood left Matthew Perry on an unfortunate path.

On a stormy Tuesday night in 1969, one day after the end of Woodstock and a month after the Moon Landing, Matthew Langford Perry came into the world screaming – and didn’t stop.

His parents – a folk singer and a beauty queen – were quickly driven crazy by their colicky son. Concerned and overwhelmed by the constant crying, they took the baby to a doctor. This was how little Matthew Perry, at the developmentally critical age of two months, came to be prescribed the major barbiturate phenobarbitol.

Needless to say, the crying stopped – but this would be the first of many times that Matthew’s problem was fixed with a substance instead of by learning to do the internal work.

At nine months Matthew’s parents broke up, and he was left with his 21-year-old mother while his father pursued his dreams of becoming an actor in California. As Matthew grew up, he learned to be an entertainer and a caretaker – to try and please people and make them laugh.

He found himself fighting for the attention of his mother, who was kept busy as the press secretary for the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. When his mother had another baby, Matthew started feeling like he didn’t belong in the family, and that's when the behavior problems began. He had problems at school because he smoked and got into fights. At one point he even beat up the son of his mother’s boss – the future prime minister Justin Trudeau.

But one of the most significant events of his childhood came at the age of 14: his first drink. He was with two friends – brothers Chris and Brian Murray. No one was home, and for whatever reason, they decided to get drunk. They got hold of a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine, and finished it all in 15 minutes in Matthew’s backyard.

As you might expect, the brothers began vomiting. But Matthew’s experience was different. He simply lay on his back, in the grass, looking at the moon, and something changed. He realized that, for the first time in his life, everything was fine. The world made sense, all his problems were gone, and he was happier than he had ever been.

While this revelation didn’t immediately lead to regular heavy drinking, it was in that moment that the seed was sown – the seed that would lead to what he calls the Big Terrible Thing, or alcoholism and addiction.

You see, Matthew Perry suffers from anhedonia – he can’t enjoy anything unless it’s exciting… or he’s drunk.

But all this will come later. At 15 years old, Matthew is angry, fighting with his mom, and feeling alienated in Canada. He decides to move to LA to get to know his father and see if Hollywood can fill the gaping hole inside him.

Chasing fame and fortune in Los Angeles.

Every evening, Matthew Perry’s father would arrive home from his day on set, pour himself a strong vodka tonic, and declare, “This is the best thing that’s happened to me all day.” It’s this attitude that the young boy would absorb during his early years in Los Angeles.

But while his dad was teaching him how to drink, Matthew was also learning how to act – it turned out he was quite good at pretending to be a different person.

No one tells you what life is really like.

Shortly before the pilot of Friends aired, the director Jimmy Burrows gave each of the soon-to-be stars $100. He told them to go gamble and have fun, because soon they would never have the chance to do that in public again.

And he was right. The actors all had immediate chemistry which translated to the screen, and the 8:30 p.m. time slot – right between Seinfeld and Mad About You – made Friends an instant hit.

Life after Friends.

One by one, the characters place their apartment keys on the empty counter – first Monica, then Chandler, Joey, Ross, Rachel, and finally Phoebe. Matthew Perry had specifically requested to have the last word on the show, so when Rachel suggests getting one final coffee, Chandler responds with perfect comedic timing: “Sure… where?”

“Embryonic Journey” by Jefferson Airplane plays, the camera pans to the back of the apartment door, and the assistant director shouts “That’s a wrap!” for the last time. After 237 episodes, Friends is finally over.

Kernaussagen in Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Worum geht es in Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing?

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022) is the intimate memoir of critically acclaimed actor Matthew Perry. From his troubled childhood to his meteoric rise to fame in the hit sitcom Friends to his lifelong struggle with substance abuse and addiction, Perry holds nothing back as he reveals his life, thoughts, and soul.